General News of Saturday, 3 March 2018
Source: citifmonline.com
2018-03-03
Captain Budu Koomson, Retired army chief
A retired army chief, Captain Budu Koomson has called on government to allow the security agencies to use brute force in dealing with armed robbers in the country.
There has been an upsurge in armed robbery cases in the last few weeks with a number of them involving daylight attacks on individuals and institutions.
Speaking on Citi FM’s News analysis programme, The Big Issue on Saturday, Budu Koomson said the only way to fight the robbers, who he said are in the minority, is to match them “boot for boot.”
“These armed robbers are never in the majority, it is a small group that has to be taken on rather with bold action by the security agencies. You don’t go to them with kids gloves. I will preach for bold action, take them on, boot for boot.”
“It is war and war is not pleasant. They’ve declared war on us. Professionalism doesn’t mean cowardice or treating people with kids gloves. Let us give them the space to deal with this thing radically,” he added.
Captain Koomson also welcomed a decision by government to deploy the military in the fight against armed robbers, saying that although it is a short-term measure, it is reassuring to the public.
He further called on government to retool the security agencies to enable them discharge their duties effectively.
“I would say that bringing in the military to collaborate with the police is a short-term approach but it is reassuring. It is a short-term measure to put the fear of God in the criminals but the long term is to actually enhance the capabilities of the police, give them logistics and force the training on them. We have to build the intelligence capacity to filter out these things before they hit us,” he added.
2 suspected robbers gunned down at Haatso
His comments come after officers from the Greater Accra Regional Police Command gunned down two suspected notorious robbers in their hideout in what the police calls an exchange of gunfire earlier this week.
According to the Police, the two, Raymond, alias Dragon, and Kwame alias Mafia, are suspected to be part of a syndicate that robbed a fuel station at Haatso in Accra.
They are believed to have also been involved in the attack on the Kwabenya District Police station which led to some 7 inmates being freed and the killing of a police officer, Inspector Emmanuel Ashilevi.
According to the Minister of State in charge of National Security, Bryan Acheampong, over 200 robbery cases have been recorded since January 2018.
However, he insisted that despite a significant increase in the number of cases so far this year as compared to the same time last year, there has consistently been a large number of robbery cases for close to two decades.